Common Services Platform Collector (CSPC) Self-Service - Getting Started Guide. November 2015

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Common Services Platform Collector (CSPC)

Self-Service - Getting Started Guide

November 2015

Corporate Headquarters Cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134-1706 USA

http://www.cisco.com

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supplement your collections. The Cisco collector uses Telnet and/or SSH to collect data for device configuration, additional inventory information, and exception-based data following critical events. A list of commands that the collector is capable of executing is listed in the Cisco Security White Paper, available at this link: Cisco Security White Paper.

Smart Net Total Care Support Community

For more information about Smart Net Total Care, please see the Smart Net Total Care Support Community where you can find discussion groups, frequently asked questions, training, and other Smart Net Total Care-related resources.

Smart Net Total Care Support Community

Virtual Platform Requirements

This section provides information about the virtual platform requirements. This guide does not provide directions on how to install the different virtual platforms.

These are the system requirements for the collector image that runs on a ESXi 4.x or higher virtual platform:

 250 GB of hard drive space  4 CPU cores (virtual CPUs)

 1 virtual NIC (number of NICs required is dependent upon the network topology)  4GB of virtual RAM

Download the Virtual Machine Image

After ensuring that your virtual environment can provide the needed resources, the next step is to download the Smart Net Total Care image. The software image can be obtained from the download center. The

download center contains the most recent software image. To access the Cisco Smart Net Total Care image perform the following steps

 Go to the following URL: http://software.cisco.com/download/type.html?mdfid=283107976&catid=null

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 Click SNTC Software Collector Appliance; the Download Software window appears.

 Click the Download button. If you are prompted, accept the Terms and Conditions to start the image download.

 Deploy this image on your virtual environment.

Configure Appliance IP Address

This section applies to both the virtual machine and hardware platform versions of the appliance. To configure the IP address of the appliance, perform the following steps:

 For hardware appliances: connect a monitor and keyboard to the server.

 For software appliances: connect to the virtual machine console using your virtual environment’s tools.

After powering on the collector, you should see a request to press any key.

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The “Press any key” display is normal during the boot up process and may take several minutes before you will see a login prompt.

 Log into the software appliance via connected console using the following login id/pw information:

admin/Admin!23

On the first login, the appliance forces a password change from the default CLI password.

After logging in to the appliance you will see the following screen:

To assign a static IP address, the command conf ip is used.

 At the command prompt enter the following information:

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conf ip <interface> <IP address> <Netmask> <Default Gateway>

For example:

conf ip eth0 192.168.1.100 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1

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 At the command prompt enter the following information:

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conf dhcp <interface>

For example: conf dhcp eth0

Configure the DNS servers:

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conf dns –a <DNS IP address 1> <DNS IP address 2>

Configure the timezone by running this command and entering the appropriate value at the prompt:

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timezone

Configure the time by syncing with your NTP server. You can also press enter at the prompt to use the

default:

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timesync

Enable the Linux user login “collectorlogin” and set in how many days it should expire (1-180)

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pwdreset collectorlogin 180

Record this password!

Enable the Linux root login and set in how many days it should expire (1-180)

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pwdreset root 180

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To make the changed settings effective, the appliance needs to be rebooted.  At the command prompt enter:

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reboot

confirm the question on the screen with y

After the appliance has rebooted, confirm that the IP is correct.  At the command prompt enter:

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show ip

 Connect to the appliance via SSH to ensure you can manage the CSPC remotely.

CSPC Registration

A CSPC registration needs to be performed before the collector can be utilized by the Cisco Smart Net Total Care portal. The registration allows a validation to occur that creates a connection between the CSPC collector and the Cisco data center. The registration process requires you to obtain the entitlement files (a security certificate and other registration files). These registration/entitlement files are used later to complete the CSPC installation.

This step requires you to access the Smart Net Total Care portal, and requires that you finish your onboarding and registration. To do that, follow this link: https://www.cisco.com/web/smartservices/sntc.html

For detailed instructions on how to complete Self-Service Onboarding:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/document/12566021/new-smart-net-total-care

Important!

Do not unzip the entitlement file!

Only a Smart Net Total Care Customer Administrator can generate the entitlement files. Log in to the Smart Net Total Care portal at https://tools.cisco.com/smartservices/

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Complete the required fields as follows:

 The CSPC Name should match the server’s hostname, or can be any name used to identify this collector on your network.

 Select your company name from the drop down list to populate the Entitled Company field.  You can manually type in the Site ID of your collector. This field can be anything you deem

appropriate.

 For the Serial Number, copy Unix Epoch time from here: http://www.epochconverter.com/

 For Inventory Name, use the format “Hostname-inventory”

Click the Submit button and wait for the dialogue to popup that will allow you to download the zip file. Save the zip file to a location where you will be able to find it. Do not unzip the file!

Log into the Software Appliance

To access the appliance, open a browser window and perform the following steps:  Use the following URL format to access the appliance:

https://<your_appliance_ip_address>:8001/

You will see some type of security certificate warning on your browser that alerts you about the websites security certificate or that the browser cannot confirm a secure connection. The warning will be different depending upon the type browser you have.  Acknowledge the warning and then continue with the appliance login.

 Enter your login credentials.

The default appliance user id/password is: admin / Admin#123

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Browse to your .zip entitlement file and then click OK.

After you upload the entitlement and click OK, the collector will reboot. It will take a couple minutes before you’ll be able to log back in.

Log in again using the admin/Admin#123 credentials. An End User License Agreement will pop up. Read it and click “I Accept” to proceed. You will then be prompted for Password Reset Questions.

 Click No to provide this information at a later time. The appliance now loads its software items for operation.

After all software is loaded, the graphical user interface (GUI) appears.

Collector Operation

The collector operation requires that the collector have these related tasks performed:  Entering CSPC Device Credentials

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Entering CSPC Device Credentials

This section describes the process for specifying the device credentials.

In order to discover network devices and collect device data, you must first enter the device credentials.

The setup of device credentials in CSPC is used for two purposes:

 SNMP credentials are used for the initial discovery of the devices, and for data collection.

 In addition to SNMP, the remaining credentials (telnet, SSH, HTTP, HTTPS) are used for data collection from the discovered devices.

To set the device credentials using the SNMP protocol, perform the following steps:  On the CSPC menu, choose Settings > Device Credentials

The Device Credential Configuration window appears.

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The device credentials window appears, which contains credential identification, authentication information, and SNMP Read community string details.

Fill out the required data:

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The credential name can be any name you choose and should be representative of the group or area you are working with.

 In the Transport section click the Protocol field drop-down list and specify the SNMP version of your string.

 For the SNMP V1/V2 Community Strings section, enter the respective Read community string by clicking the … icon. The Enter Read Community String window appears.

 In the Enter Read Community String window, enter the read community string.  Then click OK.

 Enter an IP Address list by clicking the pencil icon to the right of the IP Address List field in the device credentials window.

 Then enter the IP address list.

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 After entering the IP Address in the IP Address list field, click Add . The entered data is added to the IP address list.

 This list specifies which IPs CSPC may use with this credential to communicate with devices for operations such as discoveries or data collection.

 Specific IPs can be provided or wildcards can be used to replace octets of an IP to create a range.

 If an IP or range of IPs is not included in this field, CSPC will not use this credential when trying to communicate with a device that has such an IP.

 Entering *.*.*.* will allow CSPC to use the credential with any IP. 172.16.*.* would only allow the credentials to be used for devices in the 172.16.0.0/16 subnet. The IP addresses that are referenced should be as tight or as restrictive as possible, while allowing coverage for all required devices.

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 Click OK.

The Edit Credentials window appears with a successful saved message.

 Click OK. The window closes.

The next steps are used to perform the steps for device discovery, inventory and upload. To collect show command information, you will need to create an SSH and/or Telnet credential in addition to the SNMP credential you just created. Follow the same logic as above, but set the Protocol to SSH or Telnet and fill out the Authentication section with the appropriate username/password, instead of the SNMP V1/V2 Community Strings section.

Device Discovery, Inventory Collection and Upload

There are several different processes that are required to perform an inventory upload. Those processes are:

 Discover the Devices

 Run Collection Profile and Upload Data

Discover the Devices

This section shows the three ways you can discover your devices as well as how to run the discovery job:

 Discover devices using Known IP Addresses

 Discover devices with protocols such as CDP, OSPF and ARP

 Discover devices by scanning/pinging a range of IP Addresses

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To discover your devices for any of the 3 discovery options, choose Management > Discover and

Manage Devices.

The Discover and Manage Network Devices window appears.

Discover Devices using Known IP Addresses

This discovery process finds the available devices in a managed network, where the IP addresses of the devices are already known. To discover these devices, perform the following steps:

 Select the method you want to use for discovery.  Then click Next.

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 Enter the IP Addresses for the devices that you want to discover from your network. Place the IP Address in the IP Address/Host Name field then click + Add, or press the enter key.

The IP Address is added to the IP Address list.

You can add multiple IPs at once by using a space in between IPs in the IP Address/Host name field .

 Click Next to proceed to the Discovery Schedule Options

Discover devices with protocols such as CDP, OSPF and ARP

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 Select the protocols by clicking the boxes next to the protocol(s) you would like the CSPC to consider. The collector will look at the corresponding tables within a device to find IP addresses for devices within those tables to discover.

 Specify the Hop Count value that you would like the CSPC to go, beyond the seed device

 Enter your seed device IP Address(es) and then click +Add to add them to the seed device list.

 Click Next to proceed to the Discovery Schedule Options

Discover devices by scanning/pinging a range of IP Addresses

This method uses SNMP to contact all the IP addresses in the range you specify. You provide the starting IP address and the ending IP address of the range or specify a particular subnet using CIDR notation.

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You can enter ranges by specifying the exact starting and ending IP address for a range or by entering in a network address with its corresponding CIDR notation.

For this example the CIDR option is highlighted.

 Enter the network address in the Start IP Address field followed by a slash ( / ) and the appropriate network bit number. Then click the CIDR Address box and press +Add

Any range larger than 255 addresses will yield the following pop-up message. This is informing you that it may take some time for the Discovery Job to complete.

 Click Yes and proceed.

Discovery Schedule Options

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 Under Management Protocol, select the version of SNMP that corresponds with your Device Credentials.

 Decide if you want the discovery to run now or schedule for the future. For this example, we will consider the option to discover now.

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After performing the above steps, the “Successfully completed the Discovery Operation” message is displayed.

 Click OK.

Run Collection Profile and Upload Data

The below steps will help you set up the Collection Profile that will enable CSPC to collect relevant device data, as well as initiate an upload to the Cisco Data Center upon

completion.

 To manage your Collection Profile, go to Settings  Manage Data Collection

Profiles…

 Double-click the collection profile sntc 1x_min_cp. The Modify Collection Profile window appears.

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 Scroll down to the bottom of the window and check the boxes for Schedule Periodic Collection and ‘Export upon successful execution of collection profile’

The ‘Export upon successful execution of collection profile’ checkbox enables uploads. With this checkbox checked, after the collection completes, CSPC will upload the collected data from the Collection Profile to Cisco.

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 Begin by selecting the date of the first collection by clicking the Calendar icon.  A calendar will pop up; select a date.

After you select your date you will be brought back to the Configure Schedule window.  Enter the time of day you would like the collection to take place.

 Check the box for Repeat schedule.  Then select the No end date radio button.  Now choose the Recurrence Pattern.

 Click OK to save your changes and return to the Modify Collection Profile window.  Click OK to close out the Modify Collection Profile window.

Your collection will occur at the date and time you specified.

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The details of the data collection are filled in. A summary is above and the details are below.

 After the collection process finishes, the above report can be exported by clicking the

Export Report…button.

 Click Close when you are finished or to let the Collection run in the background.

When the collection job completes, the upload will be sent to the Cisco Data Center. It may take up to 24 hours before your upload will be processed by the portal.

You can view the upload status by going to: https://tools.cisco.com/smartservices and clicking Library 

Common Services Platform Collector (CSPC) Self-Service - Getting Started Guide. November 2015